The Oak’s tower of strength has a regal presence and tendency to attract lightning. It is associated with the Celtic god, Eochaidh Ollathair (Dagda). The Dagda possesses superhuman strength, endurance, agility, magical powers to open portals, grant power to mortals, hurl energy, and perceive phenomenon on a cosmic scale. He has power, mystical potential and more superhuman strength than any Celtic god, and may be equal to Zeus and Odin in power.

Ancient Celts recognized and honored the Oak as a clear sign of its noble presence, endurance, massive growth, impressive expanse, and as a spiritual doorway. The ancient Europeans wore oak leaves as a sign of special status. Known for its high tannin content, it is resistant to fungus, and used for making doors and boats.

There are accounts that trace the name “druid” to duir, the Celtic term for the Oak. The actual translation of duir is “door” and lore indicates that witches can access the ethereal planes of higher thought by using the Oak as a door into magical places. Druids met in oak groves and ate acorns to ingest the ancient knowledge contained in them. Mistletoe grows best on the Oak, and is the most sacred herb of the Druids.

When you look at life through grateful eyes, then life becomes a magical realm of amazing and endless possibilities. Cultivate the practice of gratitude as a way to bring more into your life, that can lead to joy in the face of adversity, unshakable inner peace and unwavering freedom.

GRATITUDE JOURNAL

Take time everyday to write 5 things you are grateful for, and why. You can do this exercise in the morning before starting your day, or in the evening before bedtime. Close your eyes and take a deep breath, and listen for the whisper of things in which to be grateful.

Express and enjoy the blessings of gratitude for the benefits of visible and invisible helpers, who act as “Virgil” to guide us through the dark woods.

The eternal vox of Ireland’s Lisa Gerrard and composer Patrick Cassidy, merging as if every instrument in the ethers integrated into one enormous celestial storm of orchestral myth. The composition, Sailing to Byzantium was inspired by the poet William Butler Yeats’ poem by the same title.

Yeats wrote the poem in 1926, at the age of around 60. It is definitive of the agony of lost youth, an abyss of pain and inevitability of old age, societal insignificance, and the spiritual and imaginative inner work necessary to remain vital.

Byzantium was an ancient Greek city that later become Constantinople. It was the center of European civilization and the source of its spiritual philosophy. Therefore, Yeats symbolized a metaphorical journey for the spiritual life by a man pursuing his visual quest of eternal life, and the conception of paradise by sailing to the Holy City of Byzantium. Byzantium is now Istanbul, the largest city in Turkey.